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Obama agenda: Transparency?

The New York Times: "Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion… The new attention to the agreement could prove embarrassing to the White House, which has sought to keep lobbyists at a distance, including by refusing to hire them to work in the administration. The White House commitment to the deal with the drug industry may also irk some of the administration's Congressional allies who have an eye on drug companies' profits as they search for ways to pay for the $1 trillion cost of the health legislation."

Obama takes his traveling health-care road show to Portsmouth, N.H., next Tuesday. "It will be Obama's first foray into the Granite State while president. He stumped there in October, just before the November election. In his electoral landslide, he won the state, despite Republican John McCain's popularity there."

Per a front-page New York Times article, "The Obama administration intends to announce an ambitious plan on Thursday to overhaul the much-criticized way the nation detains immigration violators, trying to transform it from a patchwork of jail and prison cells to what its new chief called a 'truly civil detention system.'" More: "Details are sketchy, and even the first steps will take months or years to complete. They include reviewing the federal government's contracts with more than 350 local jails and private prisons, with an eye toward consolidating many detainees in places more suitable for noncriminals facing deportation — some possibly in centers built and run by the government."

The Obamas will be vacationing in Martha's Vineyard from Sunday, Aug. 23rd to Sunday, Aug. 30th. There will be no public events while there. The arrival and departure will be open to the press, reports the Boston Globe.

And asked about a Kenyan man's offer in 2000 of 40 goats and 20 cows for Chelsea Clinton's hand in marriage, Secretary of State Clinton said the decision would be up to her daughter. "My daughter is her own person, very independent, so I will convey this very kind offer," Clinton said. The man wrote a letter conveying the offer to Bill Clinton nine years ago.